2 x Tokyo

WassinkLundgren are Thijs groot Wassink and Ruben Lundgren.  They are Dutch.  One of them lives in London.  The other lives in Beijing and is 6'5" (or 2 metres exactly if you're going metric).  They have exhibited all over the world and won numerous awards for their ingenious work and I just had to write about it. Their tactics are wonderfully guerilla and they use their duo status to maximum advantage, like in the series above where they captured the same subject at the same time from different angles. Their work has frequently been described as mischievous and playful.  They say they don't set out with a big idea that governs their approach.  They get excited by ideas that could fail because they say, if you set out knowing something will work, you're learning nothing new.  Enough said.  Wassinklundgren

Black tape does sexy

A Graphic Artist is responsible for these striking collages created with the use of black crepe tape and cut paper.  It's Nice That featured them recently too saying there was something deliciously film noirish about them.  Couldn't agree more. A Graphic Artist emailed them to me shortly before I went on maternity leave with no other clue to their identity other than a black tape square.  Intriguing!   A Graphic Artist

Crossing Paths

St Johns Road, Battersea, South London

Peckham Road, Peckham, South London

Clapham Junction Station, Battersea, South London

New Cross Street, Hull

Westbrook Bay, Margate - Kent Coast

New Wynd, Montrose - North East Coast 

This sort of project gives me goosebumps.  I saw it on my twitter feed this morning and spent a long while scrolling through the beautifully designed site Crossing Paths by Niall McDiarmid.  It is a fascinating snapshot of Britons in the 2nd decade of the 21st century that really touches the heart. I'd like to know more about these people but then that could be symptomatic of our incessant need to know stuff.  The pictures say it all.  Niall spends much time travelling around the country, taking portraits of the interesting people he comes across.  Look at the project in its entirety here: Crossing Paths
I loved his tumblr too: Niall Mcdiarmid's tumblr

Festival Magic

August Bank Holiday weekend means festival time! In these last few weeks of summer, Festival Season starts drawing to a close here in the UK.  Festivals have become to many the most accessible means of escaping from the hum drum of life, where the absurd and magical become the status quo. In these straitened times, when youth unemployment is at an all time high,  the release that festivals provide is vital.  There's also something very delightfully medieval about them; the idea of the world being turned upside down for a few days of revelry in the countryside.  Ben Gold's pictures above capture beautifully that magic and other-worldliness. He'll be showing this work in a group show at The Art Collective in September in Bethnal Green. Keep an eye out for him at Bestival which he'll also be attending to add more to the project. Ben Gold

Pom Pom Girls

First post in a long while... Am expecting a baby and what with an increasingly slow brain (baby brain; it's true...), a very demanding couple of projects and settling in a new team before I slope off to lie around like a comedy-sized queen bee on my sofa and await the arrival of my little boy (actually, that's not true; I have been afflicted with nesting dementia and driving my family crazy with it), I've had little time to update this and I've missed it!

I really wish I had the agility of these ladies right now.  London-based photographer Todd Antony spent some time in Sun City, a retirement city boasting 37 000 residents situated near Phoenix Arizona, where he came across The Sun City Poms.  They were very happy to be photographed striking their best pose against the immaculate backdrop of their sunny paradise.

Todd says on his blog that spending time with these ladies made him consider how the Americans view the ageing process; at one end of the spectrum are the child beauty pageants of kids trying to fast-track their years whilst at the other end are these fabulous pom pom girls who are successfully and gracefully holding them back.

See more here: Todd Antony

The vanishing island

Went to the Sony Photography Awards Show last weekend at Somerset House, and this series by Paris-based Korean photographer Dae Sung Lee was what impressed me most (he won 3rd prize in the Contemporary Issues category).  The shots depict the powerful effects of land erosion caused by the rising levels of the sea and the inhabitants of an island called Ghoramara off the West Bengali coast.  The islanders are mostly farmers and fishermen whose livelihoods are in such jeopardy that the Indian government has already formulated plans to relocate them.  See more of his work here: Dae Sung Lee

Back to the land

Lucas Foglia is an American photographer who has spent several years documenting the off-the-grid way of life various communities in the South Eastern states have chosen to follow. The reasons for doing so are various; religious, economic, political or ecological.  Lucas maintains that whilst some of those he met might live in the simplest yurt, none of them were totally isolated from the modern world; they have laptops or cellphones they charge using solar power but they just choose what they want to retain and reject.  Lucas showed this enchanting series called Natural Order amongst other work at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London last year (as well as other galleries internationally) and it was published in beautiful book-form by Nazraeli Press last year.  See more here: Lucas Foglia